Denis Bogan
New member
I got skied today. It's been a long time and it was soooo good. Mon. was an all day meeting at work (NASA). This stuff is exciting and I love it but it can be draining too. Mon's meeting was blessed with an abundance of "healthy tension" as are all meetings with money at stake. Having successfully finished the meeting on Mon. I decided that the agency would probably survive my absence today so I headed for Tucker County WV, a place blessed with a 1/4 inch phone book and one stoplight. I had called Whitegrass touring center on Mon. during a break and it was snowing. The lifts are always running at Whitegrass; you earn your turns. <BR> <BR>It's a 3.5 - 4 hr. drive from N VA and I normally go 2/3 of the way the night before and stay in a cheap motel. Normally there are 2 or 3 long haul truckers there and nobody else. Last night it was full. I drove on and got turned away at 3 more motels. What in hell was going on? Opening day of deer season. Finally got a spot at Blackwater Falls state park lodge a mere 5 miles from Whitegrass. The hunters don't like it because they don't serve breakfast til 8. <BR> <BR>On the drive west I saw stars very clearly and had begun to worry that the reported snow had been too little and had ended. To get to the WV highlands at >3000 ft., even in the valleys, you must gain about 2000 ft. of elevation in the last 30 miles of your drive. To get to Whitegrass that means 5 miles of 20 mph switchback white knuckle driving no matter which of 3 routes you choose. Just as I hit this stretch the glint of ice appeared on the road and within 200 ft. of elevation new snow on the shoulder. At the top of the plateau a full blown winter blizzard was raging. Rivers of snow driven by the wind would totally obscure the road for 10 seconds at a time. I repeated the mantra - Hell on the highway, Heaven on the hill. Going to Canaan Valley is often this way and you just have to get used to it. <BR> <BR>Hit the sack at 10:00 and was asleep at 10:01. At 8 in the morning the snow was still falling heavily outside, temp 16, wind about 30 with higher gusts. Whitegrass isn't open for skiing yet but old friends, Sue, Tom and Mike were getting the shop ready and were almost as excited as I about the prospect of my turns. Whitegrass guru Chip had already left for VT to visit a new grand daughter. My favorite drift line was full and the problem was to keep enough speed so as to not stall out in the deep fluff. <BR> <BR>I nibbled the edges and scalloped my tracks run after run, about 8 of them at 250 vertical feet per lap. Going higher or leaving the drift line meant skiing on a baseless 6" or so of lake effect fluff, so light that a handfull could be blown away with a soft breath. Underneath were mud, rocks, and tree limbs so my season's first falls are out of the way thank you. After lunch I headed for the top just to satisfy curiosity as to whether it was snowing on both sides of the mountain. It was. My soul was refreshed by the sights and sounds of winter in familiar woods. The soft swish of skis in powder, the sight of a solitary leaf being blown and tumbled uphill on the snow, the all enveloping moments - - . The rest of the world disappeared. I saw two hunters, said hello and headed down in the opposite direction. <BR> <BR>At 2 I bid my friends goodbye for now. Driving across the high plateau was again awe inspiring but as soon as I reached the bottom of the switchbacks winter was gone, the sun was shining, the ground was bare, and it was fall again. Here's hoping for many more rewarding days this <BR>season.